Fifteen
. . . Where the great big river
meet the little river
Follow the Drinking Gourd
for the Old Man is waiting for
to carry you to freedom
if you follow the Drinking Gourd . . .
Following the Drinking Gourd night after night, they had arrived at the enormous river which they sang about in the last verse of the song.
Ohio River was huge. It crossed the territory also called Ohio, just as the Tennessee had crossed Tennessee. These were two states of the United States of America: a continent so enormous that when the sun was rising in one part, it was setting in another. But Tommy wasn’t swallowing that, because there’s only one sun, right? Everybody knows that.
Sometimes he thought Peg Leg Joe was making fun of him.
But the Old Man leading them to freedom had to be respec
